


An Abandoned Soul

by junko



Series: Chasing Demons [22]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Abusive Partner, Abusive Relationship, Alternate Canon, M/M, Original Character(s), mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-11
Updated: 2012-12-11
Packaged: 2017-11-20 20:53:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/589542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junko/pseuds/junko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Renji and Byakuya get reincarnated-Hisana to Kurosaki Clinic only to be met on the sidewalk by Urahara and Yoruichi.  Renji has been holding it together up until now, but he's starting to lose his cool....</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Abandoned Soul

Urahara was talking about lines of fate and laws of karma and non-interference and Renji could tell Byakuya heard none of it. Instead, the captain stared like a moonstruck teenager at that ragged woman in the dirty overcoat two sizes too big for her that they’d rescued from some jerk-ass.

No, she wasn’t just some woman. 

She was Byakuya’s wife.

Hisana.

It was hard to believe. Renji always pictured the Lady Kuchiki as someone of extreme elegance and grace, more like the captain--not some cheap-looking street urchin in a half-shirt that showed off a pierced belly button, ripped and filthy jeans, and the distinct air of I’ve-slept-in-the-rough-a-lot-so-I’d-sleep-with-you-for-two-thousand-yen.

Probably the captain hadn’t yet noticed the parts that gave off the last impression: jangly, oversized earrings, the bright lipstick, and heavy make-up that tried to cover bruises and the jaded much-older-than-she-dressed lines at her eyes and lips. Renji had no plans to point them out, either. First off, Byakuya would kill him if he used words like ‘whore’ or ‘prostitute’ in reference to his wife, reincarnated or not. Secondly, it was possible Renji was wrong, and maybe Hisana just had really a really slutty fashion sense. Third, and way more important than the previous, implying that Hisana was reincarnated as a ‘working girl’ would just make Byakuya even more determined to rescue this woman from the life she was meant to be living on her own, in the human world, without interference from a powerful noble shinigami from her soul-past.

Fuck. 

This could hardly be more of a disaster. Except if she actually dropped dead in front of them and became a Plus. That could potentially be a whole lot worse. Because then they’d either need to send her through processing or take her back to the estate, and Renji was damn sure he knew which option the captain would pick.

And it wasn’t going to be the right one.

Renji had just gotten really comfortable with having his own side of Byakuya’s bed, too. He had absolutely _zero_ interest in scotching over so he could share with a wife that was supposed to be dead some fifty years ago. It was bad enough that her ghost seemed to have started haunting them, Renji could do without the actual woman physically standing there between them.

Shit, how did this even happen? It had to be seriously long odds to run into this one soul in a city this size. Not only that, what were the chances considering how often Byakuya even came to the human world...like, what, once every century? And, yet there she was, waiting, huddling no more than three feet from the very spot they would have opened the Kuchiki senkaimon. It was almost like she was drawn there.

Which maybe she was. 

Given that she was nearly dead, maybe her soul just woke up and decided, ‘fuck this shit, I’m going back to the estate. Byakuya-sama always took care of me, so la!’ After all, she was clutching to Byakuya’s arm like it was her only lifeline, and if Renji knew nothing else about Baykuya’s relationship with Hisana, he knew the captain had treated her decently. That had to be a far cry from whatever, or whoever, had left her all bruised and broken. Renji could smell the blood on her even now… blood and sick and death. 

Renji glanced at the bruiser at his feet. The asshole who likely beat her within an inch of her life was starting to stir. 

“Look, shut up already,” Renji said, cutting Urahara off. “Nobody gives a fuck about the rules of the time-space continuum or whatever right now, okay?” Renji pointed at Byakuya, “That’s his wife so he ain’t thinking straight. But, there’s no way he’s leaving without her.” Then to Hisana, “She’s going to die. And this asshole,” Renji said kicking Hisana’s husband in the ribs, “Is waking up. So can we just deal with the immediate problems and freak out later?”

#

Apparently spurred to action by Renji’s exasperation, Urahara agreed to run interference to get Hisana treated. For whatever reason, Urahara really wanted to keep Byakuya out of Kurosaki Clinic. Of course the captain was having none of it, so Byakuya stormed into the treatment area with her, even over the doctor’s protests. 

That left Renji, Urahara, the Lady Yoruichi in her black cat form, and the semi-conscious deadbeat husband in the front waiting area. Despite a burning desire to drop-kick the bruiser into the alley, Renji propped up Naoki-or-whatever-his-name-was into one of the molded plastic chairs. Then, Renji sat down next to him in order kept a hand on his shoulder to keep him from slumping over like a drunk.

Urahara leaned against the wall nearest to the door Byakuya, Hisana, and the doctor had disappeared into. Renji was glad to see a license to practice medicine posted on the wall to the left of Urahara’s shoulder, because something about that goofy doctor had Renji thinking he was better suited as a bar bouncer.... or riding on the back of a wild boar through the streets of the Rukongai. Maybe that last part was just due to an unfortunate resemblance to that yahoo Ganju Shiba.

Urahara seemed to have one ear cocked, as if listening for trouble, but it was difficult to tell because his head was tipped down so that he was mostly hidden under the shadow of his hat and a fan covered the rest of his face.

Yoruichi sat primly on one of the chairs beside Urahara, her tail thumping in irritation on the hard plastic. “Well,” she grumbled, in her deep masculine voice, “This is certainly pear-shaped.”

Renji snorted a little laugh.

Urahara peeked out from under his hat, “It’s still possible Kuchiki-Taicho will do the right thing.”

“Which is what exactly?” Renji growled, “Leave her? How likely do you think that is?”

The fan fluttered, “He has a reputation as law-abiding, which is a big reason I really wish he wasn’t in there with… “ He shook his head like there was nothing for it now, and sighed, “Well, anyway, I was under the impression that you and the good captain were lovers. So perhaps—“

“So perhaps, what?” Renji said with another snort, and a shake of his head. “What are you expecting? On a good day, I’m the boyfriend. But, until really recently, I wasn’t much more than the trusted adjutant and bonus fuck-buddy who gets kicked out of bed before sun-up,” Renji jabbed his finger at the door, “That’s his wife. His fucking dead _wife_ , who, by the way, he’s been mourning for the past fifty some years, pretty much every goddamn day as far as I can tell. I got nothing on that. What do you think I’d get if I forced him to choose? He doesn’t even see me right now.” 

Never mind that Byakuya had said ‘I love you’ no less than twenty minutes ago. It had been a violation of Yumichika’s rules, anyway. Renji should have known better than to put any stock in it. 

Even if Byakuya did still love him, it really didn’t matter. This was _Hisana_. That was all there was to it.

This was the woman he’d decided was more important than the promise he’d made to his parents. And that vow to his folks already meant more to him than Renji ever did. If not, Byakuya would have been willing to step aside. All Renji had asked that fateful day was, ‘Is there no way you’ll let me pass?’ A simple request--just look the other way for a second-- but the answer was clear. Byakuya would have paid both Renji's life and Rukia’s to keep his promise to his parents, and he’d broken that solemn oath for her, for Hisana--for that woman, the one he was probably standing next to in the clinic’s exam room, holding her hand. Alive. Breathing. Ready to love him again. 

She’d already been ten times more important to Byakuya dead than either Rukia or Renji had ever been to him _alive_.

Renji was fucked.

“I take it the birthday plans didn’t go well?” Yoruichi asked, her yellow eyes wide and curious. Her tail curled delicately around her toes, like she was giving herself a little hug.

“Are you kidding? Best damn day of my life.” Of course, he’d probably sound more convincing if hadn’t been shouting the last several things he’d said. Renji tried to let out his anger and hurt with a sigh, “Honestly, it was all pretty awesome until she showed up.”

“How _did_ she find him?” Yoruichi asked, looking to Urahara for the answer.

Urahara had folded up the fan and tapped his lips. “I’m not sure.”

“I’ve got a couple of theories,” Renji offered, tiredly. They looked at him nervously, as if afraid he might start ranting again. So he tried to keep an even tone and the editorial comments to a minimum as he told them about the nightly visitor that resembled Rukia’s zanpakutō, but called Byakuya by Hisana’s private pet name. Then Renji explained that he’d thinking Hisana’s soul must have been in trouble for some time from this oaf on the seat next to him, and that maybe she’d been reaching for Byakuya across the void. On top of that, Renji figured Hisana had been so ready to cross over tonight that she’d been drawn to the familiar reiatsu of the Kuchiki senkaimon. “Besides, even with the limiter and his ability to contain it, the captain’s a massive spiritual signature. If she had any soul-memory at all, she’d have been drawn to him like the proverbial moth.”

“I buy the last bits,” Yoruichi said. Her tail had gone back to slashing thoughtfully through the air, “But, what’s the sister got to do with the wife? How could she possibly manifest someone else’s zanpakutō like a private message service? Even her sister’s… Hisana wasn’t a shinigami, was she?”

“Indeed not,” Urahara noted, but something about the way he said it made Renji suspicious that perhaps the former-head of Research and Development might have an idea or two. In fact, he offered one, “But, Sode no Shirayuki was recently separated from Ms. Rukia for some time-- several months, in fact-- starting here in the human world when she was subsumed into Kurosaki-san temporarily. We don’t know what happened to Sode no Shirayuki after Kurosaki-san had his soul chain cut. She could have been adrift, especially once Rukia was imprisoned in the senzaikyū. That could have caused… malfunctions.”

“Oi,” Renji said, instantly objecting to the word choice, “Zanpakutō aren’t machines.”

Yoruichi laughed, “Don’t take it personally, Kisuke talks about people the same way.”

For his part, Urahara didn’t seem to notice the interruption in his thoughts, “The point is, it’s entirely possibly Sode no Shirayuki could have attempted to attach herself to reincarnated-Hisana, perhaps sensing a similar soul.”

Renji frowned, “A similar soul? But... Rukia and Hisana aren’t twins, not even close in age as far as I understand it, and, anyway, I didn’t think two people could possess the same zanpakutō. Not without a fight, anyway.”

“You’re correct. They can’t,” Urahara agreed, “But considering that it’s possible for a single person to to manifest double-zanpakutō, the reverse is at least plausible--that double-souls could possess a single zanpakutō.”

“A double soul?” Yoruichi scratched an itch behind her ear. “You know, for siblings who aren’t identical twins they did look an awful lot alike,” Yoruichi mused. She looked to Urahara again, clearly used to having him as a sounding board, “Could one part of a twin’s soul get lost in transition, separated from its sibling?”

“Twin souls are always problematic,” Urahara agreed with a nod. “It’s still not entirely clear what causes a soul to split naturally, or, in the case of captains Ukitake and Kyōraku with ther twin blades, fuse back together after having once been, or still being, twin souls.”

“Wait, so, you’re saying that Hisana could be half-Rukia?” Renji asked, feeling completely confused by this conversation. It didn’t help that he was utterly exhausted and his ass was starting to ache. It wasn’t like he’d gotten a whole lot of sleep the night before his birthday, either. “Or Rukia is half-Hisana?”

“Possibly,” Yoruichi said, licking her paw thoughtfully, “But if it was a natural split, it happened unfairly--out of balance. Rukia got all the reistsu.”

“Did that cat just talk?” asked bruiser-husband out of the blue, apparently having woken up some time ago, “Or am I high?”

“You’re high,” Renji offered sarcastically before he remembered the guy probably couldn’t hear him. 

Urahara looked like he was ready to suggest some other explanation for a talking cat when the door to the exam room opened. The doctor, Kurosaki-senior, apparently, came out and looked around his waiting room. With his hands at his hips, he glanced at each of them in turn: Urahara in his in geta and a striped bucket hat, Yoruichi licking her paw casually on an orange plastic chair, Renji in full shinigami uniform, and the bleached-blond bruiser. “Jesus Christ, I need a better job.” 

With a shake of his head, Kurosaki walked over to where Naoki sat next to Renji. He gave a brief nod at Renji as if in greeting. Standing over Naoki, he crossed his arms in front of his barrel chest and looked down his nose disapprovingly. Renji could feel a powerful wave of spiritual pressure coming off Kurosaki that made Renji want to slowly back away from the blast zone like he might from Kenpachi. 

Kurosaki bent down to shout into Naoki’s face, “Your wife is dehydrated and suffering from malnutrition. Plus, _some complete wanker_ broke her ribs, ruptured her spleen, and left her with several lovely contusions.”

Then, he turned around and told Urahara and Yoruichi, “I’m treating her with electrolytes, protein bars and monitoring for signs of shock. The ruptured spleen is the biggest danger, but I expect the spleen to stop bleeding on its own, and it’s honestly much safer to let it heal itself than do emergency surgery.”

Bruiser-dude surprised everyone by asking, “Can I see her?”

“Only if you want to die,” Renji muttered, crossing his arms in front of his chest and leaning back into the hard plastic of the chair. “I can tell you for nothing that the captain is one seriously jealous guy.”

Kurosaki gave Renji a raised eyebrow. He glanced out the window, and, for some odd reason, checked the clock on the wall. “I can’t legally stop you.” 

Urahara shot Renji a look as if wondering what they should do about it. Renji shrugged. It was that idiot’s funeral if he tried to come between Byakuya and Hisana, and Renji was having trouble mustering up enough ‘give a fuck’ to stop him.

When Naoki stood up with a self-satisfied grin, Kurosaki added, “Unless, of course, your wife agreed to charge you with assault and battery and,” red-and-white lights reflected off the nearby buildings, “I already called the cops on your sorry ass.”


End file.
